"Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all." -Harriet Van Horne

Sunday, September 19, 2010

sunday night dinner

We stopped in at one of the local farm stands on the way home to look for something for my dad, and I ended up finding some really cute little Japanese eggplants and some lovely rainbow chard. I had no clue what I was making with them when I bought them, and I think probably in terms of cohesiveness I could have done a lot better...but everything still tasted really good, so I'm happy.

For the pork chops, I took thin-cut boneless loin chops and dosed them with thyme, black pepper, and a little garlic salt. Those went into a 450 degree oven for about 5 minutes (no, really, they were THIN) and were done. The eggplant was cut into rounds, tossed in a beaten egg, then in a mixture of flour, a little corn starch, some breadcrumbs, black pepper and cayenne. I laid them into a pan of smoking hot olive oil in batches so as not to crowd them, and flipped them when they got crispy and golden. The chard was washed, chopped roughly (including most of the stems because I like the crunch), and thrown into a hot pan with some chopped onion. I covered the pan tightly so that the water on the leaves would help to steam it and cook it through. It took about 6-7 minutes for the leaves and stems to get tender. I dressed the chard with a splash of balsamic vinegar.

I liked the chard and wouldn't change anything with it, I don't think...but I wasn't really satisfied with the eggplant. I keep making eggplant, thinking it's going to taste like something on its own, but...it kind of doesn't. I need to work on that. :)